Method of protecting wood.



. D. G. MEBHAN.

METHOD OF PROTECTING WOOD.

APPLICATION rum) JULY 21, 1908.

912,013. Y Patented Feb. 9, 1909.

u A: Dunn UNITED STATES PATENT rice.

DAVID C. MEEHAN, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO.

METHOD OF PROTECTING WOOD.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID C. MEEHAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Protecting Wood, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a new and useful method of protecting wood surfaces from the objectionable results of swelling or expanding due to exposure of the same to the moisture carried in the atmosphere, or otherwise, and my invention consists, essentially, in covering the surface or piece to be protected with a sheet adapted to receive a facing layer, said sheet being united to said piece by an adhesive and certain parts of the sheet and corresponding parts of the piece being coordinately displaced while in situ and the displaced portions being intimately interlocked or bonded whereby the sheet and surface to be protected are maintained in constant contact along their plane surfaces and also at their displaced portions.

It is well known to those familiar with the characteristics of wood, that there is a natural tendency of fibrous material when so closely bonded thereto as to be capable of excluding ordinary air, to buckle outwardly or draw away from the wood to which it may be attached by an adhesive merely.

For many and important reasons it is desirable to protect certain materials, such as wood, from the detrimental influences of atmospheric moisture, which can only be by the practical if not absolute and complete exclusion of the ordinary air, with its vapor of water. This faculty of absorbing moisture so contained, while variable, is so great in many of the woods in common use that a structure, say a door, made from kiln-dried lumber in the winter season, will, in many instances, absorb so much moisture in the following summer, that it will become too large for its frame or casing, and will require refitting. This condition or physical characteristic has been known to continue for a period of years.

The essential object of the present invention is to prevent, as far as may be possible, the admission of atmospheric moisture to structures composed of materials made practically dry in the first instance, by any of the known processes, and before assembling, and long continued trials have shown Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 21, 1908.

Patented Feb. 9, 1909.

Serial No. 444,592.

that in structures thus protected the wood fibers are not subject to the usual swelling or expansion, and contraction, so common in unprotected wood, and that the fibers must remain practically stationary, for an in crease or decrease in size is absolutely imperceptible, thus keeping the joints intact, where two or more pieces are joined together, as well as preserving the wood from all forms of decay.

Extensive experiment made by me has shown the futility of the use of nails in the attemptto hold thin fibrous material in place, for the very driving of these nails through any kind of sheet material produces a buckled effect around the nail-hole thus formed, thereby raising the surface of the sheet and creating an air-space back of the sheet, and permitting access thereto of the moisture with which the air is more or less heavily charged. Other tests made with thin fibrous materials and an adhesive alone have proved equally ineffective owing to the varying absorptive qualities of the wood to be protected; if the sheet is not held by substantially the same tension over the whole surface, those portions held the less tightly will soon become released from their beforeintimate contact, thereby making it possible for air-bodies to form beneath the protected sheet, and to progressively grow in size and influence until the whole fabric is ultimately substantially released, or made practically worthless for any kind of protection. It has therefore become quite manifest to me that intimate and constant contact is a prerequisite to the successful protection of wood surfaces from moisture and atmospheric influences; this essential and most important result I have been able to obtain by my new method of attaching the protecting sheet or medium which I will now describe.

In the accompanying drawing :-Figure 1, represents a building construction embodying my invention and showing a portion of a ceiling and supporting column, with parts broken away. Fig. 2, illustrates the wood cores of a door and paneled Wainscot with the protecting sheet bounded thereto.

While my method is herein shown as applied to a building construction and the frame Work thereof and to a door andwainscot construction, I wish it to be understood that the invention is by no means limited thereto, but said invention comprehends and the wood, which may represent the core of a door, or other form, with a coating of adhesive, and place over this a thin (preferably) fibrous material, B, of such natural property as will, or which may be rendered capable of, excluding air when it is once united with said core or form. Some kind of fastening in addition to the adhesive being absolutely necessary to keep this fibrous material in place, and individual tacks or nails being useless and detrimental to any fine veneer or outer covering which may subsequently serve as a finish for the article, I have found it feasible to utilize portions of the fibrous sheet or sheathing itself for the purpose and this is successfully accomplished as follows: By means of a roller or other pressure device having points, spurs or the like on its surface, the adhesive-attached fibrous material is subjected to pressure to depress or displace the material at numerous points and to coordinately depress or displace the fibers of the wood beneath. Depressions or pits are thus formed in the wood and fibrous material, the ridge or offset on the reverse side of the fibrous material, and resulting from the displacement or depression of this material, being driven into the corresponding depressions in the wood below and being intimately locked to the fibers of the wood. This, plus the presence of the adhesive which has been carried down into the pits or depressions in the wood, constitutes in the aggregate a considerable number of relatively small holding-points at frequent intervals into and through the surface of the wood.

By actual experiment I have discovered that the foregoing operation results in drawing taut the outer surface of the fibrous material or sheathing sheet, and which may be composed of any waterproof or substantially air-proof fabric, and in loosening up the fibers of the inner portion and outstanding them from the plane of the inner surface of the sheet, which fibers are driven inward substantially into the wood fibers, thus joining the plain and broken adjacent surfaces of the wood and fibrous material with the adhesive placed under the fibrous sheet, on the face of the wood to be protected, to the practically entire exclusion of air from between their surfaces. As the process of depression described removes or displaces and carries over to the other or under side a very large portion of the original outer surface, this inner surface thus becomes very much greater in weight and in adhesive-carrying capacity, and these two causes seem to aid materially in keeping the protecting sheet in place and excluding air from between the surfaces, for it is manifestly impossible for this now smaller outer surface, the original strength of which has been broken by so,

many depressions, to lift the heavier, and new larger under side.

The depression or pits made in the outer surface of the fibrous material may be readily filled by pigments, adhesives or any suitable plastic material, depending on whether the exterior finish of the structure so protected is to be paint, enamel, paper, wood or other substance; and such unevenness or irregularity in the fibrous sheet as may be caused by passing the puncturingroller or pressure device over the sheet, may be corrected by a brush or roller applied before the adhesive hardens.

I sometimes prefer, especially where ve neers for door cores are used, to size the fibrous sheet with a thin adhesive after applying to the wood core and fastening by displacement of fibers before described. Upon this sized surface, a finishing coat of paint, enamel, paper or other Inaterialmay be applied.

The foregoing method fully protects the wood core against the common form of damage, swelling and shrinking, due to the absorption of moisture, and its partial expulsion under varying conditions, resulting first in the expansion and then the contraction of the wood fibers, and provides a most satisfactory way, heretofore impracticable, to place and maintain veneers or other forms of exterior finish on doors, wainscots, walls,

large surfaces, wherever needed.

Having thus described my invention what.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The method herein described of protecting wood, said method consisting in so closely applying a fabric as to exclude air from the wood, and bonding the fabric to the wood by coordinately displacing parts of the fabric and corresponding parts of the wood to form numerous and independent attaching agencies substantially throughout the area of the wood and its protecting fabric.

2. The method herein described of protecting wood, said method consisting in so closely applying a fabric as to exclude air from the wood, and attaching said fabric to the wood by adhesive, and further bonding the fabric to the wood by coordinately displacing-parts of the fabric and corresponding parts of the wood to form supplemental holding agents substantially throughout the contacting surfaces of the Wood and fabric.

3. The method herein described of protecting Wood, said method consisting in so closely applying a fabric as to exclude air from the Wood, and attaching said fabric to the Wood by adhesive, and further bonding the fabric to the Wood by coordinately displacing parts of the fabric and corresponding parts of the Wood to form supplemental holding agents substantially throughout the contacting surfaces of the Wood and fabric, and then sizing the exposed surface of the fabric.

4:. The method herein described of protecting Wood, said method consisting in so closely applying a fabric as to exclude air from the Wood and attaching said fabric to the Wood by adhesive, and further bonding the fabric to the Wood by coordinately displacing parts of the fabric and corresponding parts of the Wood to form supplemental holding agents substantially throughout the contacting surfaces of the Wood and fabric, then sizing the exposed surface of the fabric, and then applying a finishing surface to said fabric.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of tWo Witnesses.

DAVID C. MEEHAN.

WVitnesses JOHN A. CONNOR, MATTIE M. HEADLEY. 

